Rodina Cole Cave, Attorney

Bar and Court Admissions:  Admitted to the Arizona Bar 2003 and New Mexico Bar 2005; licensed to practice before the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the Pueblo of Santa Ana Tribal Court. 
      
Education:  Ms. Cave earned her law degree and Indian Law Certificate from Arizona State University College of Law where she was selected by the faculty as Outstanding Graduate 2001.  During law school, Ms. Cave was Note and Comment Editor and staff writer for the Arizona State Law Journal and tutor for the Pre-Law Summer Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Academic Success Program at Arizona State University.  Ms. Cave also served as the National Native American Law Student Association's representative to the American Bar Association.

Ms. Cave serves as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and coaches the law school's Native American Law Students Association moot court teams.  She also serves on the New Mexico State Bar Indian Law Section Board of Directors. 

Prior to attending law school, Ms. Cave earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also served as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions for the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Before joining the Nordhaus Law Firm in May 2004, Ms. Cave worked as an associate attorney in commercial litigation for Brown & Bain, P.A. in Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. Cave also clerked in 2001-2002 for the Honorable William C. Canby, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Ms. Cave's work covers a broad range of matters for many of the Firm's clients.  She has worked on litigation in federal, state, and tribal courts regarding water rights, sovereign immunity, tribal trust funds, tribal jurisdiction, and gaming.  Her work also includes client support for projects involving tribal water, land acquisition, federal legislation, tribal court systems, and protection of traditional properties and resources.  While with the Firm, Ms. Cave has participated significantly in the following cases and ongoing litigation:  Nord v. Kelly, 520 F.3d 848 (8th Cir. 2008) concerning tribal court jurisdiction;  Pelt v. Utah, No. 2:92-CV-639 (D. Utah),  fiduciary accounting and breach of trust case; New Mexico v. Abeyta, CV 69-7896 and 69-7939 (consolidated) (D. N.M.), water rights adjudication. 

Preparation of Amici Curiae Briefs:  Narragansett Indian Tribe v. Rhode Island, 449 F.3d 16 (1st Cir. 2005); Doe v. Santa Clara Pueblo, 141 N.M. 269, 154 P.3d 644 (2007).

Publication: Comment, Simplifying the Indian Trust Responsibility, 32 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 1399 (2001), cited in Cobell v. Norton, 283 F.Supp.2d 66, 130 n.31 (D.D.C. 2003).

Ms. Cave is of Quechua (Peruvian Indian) descent.